On the Sidewalks of New York is a weekly feature at Human Events wherein Jacqueline Toboroff, a native New Yorker, will share her observations and candid commentary on the goings-on in our nation’s largest city. Wherever you live, and whatever you feel, there is no escaping the fact that New York City matters.
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Did you hear? For all of you that have moved on with life, New York City is still in the grip of a COVID emergency. In case you missed the news, come November 1st, New York City Mayor Adams is ending the “vaccine” mandates for private businesses and student-athletes. But not city workers.
Here’s what is newsworthy. Private sector needs to wait six more weeks until the mandate is phased out; no reason from the Mayor was given. Adams’ announcement failed to mention why city workers are still being punished. At this point, we can only conclude this administration likes mandates and is completely confused. Adams seems sorry to see the mandates kind of go; he says “although, the removal is no indication that we don’t believe boosters are important and vaccinations are important. We’re going to continue to encourage parents to vaccinate their children. That’s the reason we’re doing this important campaign.” What campaign - he’s in office. It remains very difficult to decode Adams who is as gifted an orator as Biden.
There are only a couple of points of interest here; is New York City still in what appears to be a nonstop state of emergency, are we still getting Federal COVID relief money, and why settle on the date of November to somewhat end the mandates but make the announcement on Sept. 19.
Rest assured, New York State is still in a state of emergency, at least until October 9th, 2022. States of emergency are a financially sound way for government to balance the books, expand bureaucracy positions, and impose new initiatives that their otherwise financial dereliction and repugnant ideas can’t finesse.
On July 22, just two months ago, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced an additional $387 Million in COVID relief would be delivered to 1,452 local governments throughout the state.
New York City received more than $5.88 billion of direct aid.
On the Governor’s website, it states “the American Rescue Plan Act provided $350 billion for eligible state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to respond to the COVID emergency, including $10.7 billion in relief for New York State’s local governments.” The usual suspects presiding over failure weighed in; Nadler, Schumer, Rice, Bowman, Meeks, the two Maloneys were thrilled to get cash injections. ARPA funds are meant to go towards supporting public health expenditures, negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency, replacement of lost revenue, provide premium pay for essential workers, and Invest in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure. With all this money, New York continues to decline. Two questions here must be asked. One, was this taxpayer money necessary? Two, did it even go toward the five aforementioned purposes?
Adams’ vague and confusing presser is revealing. The state of emergency cannot end. Even if a portion of the mandate is lifted, some measure of panic must be circulated in order to create another potential emergency.
Enter Polio. On September 9th, 2022, our rulers went back to the drawing board. A (as in one) case of paralytic polio was identified on July 21. Fitting into the ARPA guidelines to receive money, genetically related polioviruses have been detected in wastewater samples collected in Orange, Rockland, and Sullivan counties in April, May, June, July, and August 2022.
“THEREFORE, I, Kathy Hochul, Governor of the State of New York, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the Laws of the State of New York, hereby find, pursuant to Section 28 of Article 2-B of the Executive Law, that a disaster has occurred in New York State, for which the affected local governments are unable to respond adequately, and I do hereby declare a State disaster emergency for the entire State of New York through October 9, 2022.
Can you guess what’s coming next?
“By virtue of the authority vested in me by Section 29-a of Article 2-B of the Executive Law to temporarily suspend or modify any statute, local law, ordinance, order, rule, or regulation, or parts thereof, of any agency during a State disaster emergency."
Don’t worry, the CDC is working closely with WHO, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and other international public health partner organizations. It’s like putting in the rats to guard the cheese.
If there is one bright spot in local government here in New York City that residents should be aware of, it’s City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov of District 48, one of 5 Republicans in a 51-member body. She has remembered to put constituents first, above money, and above politics. “I’m against all mandates and believe they should end immediately for all. I thank the Mayor for meeting with us, hearing us out, and removing the private sector and after-school mandates for students but hope our city workers are next in line. We are doing our best to advocate on their behalf and will continue to do so ”, she said.
Finally, why did Adams choose November 1st to phase out some of the mandates?
Elections are November 8. The choice is clear, mandate and state-of-emergency-loving Hochul or ending-all-mandates Zeldin.
